Athens: Paul’s Dangerous Journey to Share the Truth transformed our church into parts of ancient Athens last week (thanks, Jeremy Poortvliet!) where we met twice each day to sing fun songs, learn Bible points and verses/share “God Sightings” and even share some “cheers” from each family (thanks, Jean Burk!). Our gym was a bustling Market Place, full of various crafts, a food shop, and a missionary shop. Outside was the Animal Courtyard. Other parts of the church building provided small group homes for 12 Greek “families”, also called Oikos. The Upper Room became the place where Paul (played by Bill Botti) was living, all the time being faithful to Jesus Christ and the One True God, even when it was dangerous. His acquaintance, Dionysis, was played by Pastor Marty. Dionysis was a Greek who became a believer in Jesus after hearing Paul speak. (Thanks, Denise Bertram, for decorating Paul’s headquarters!). All in all, it was a great week!

Want to know some numbers?

115 different kids attended. All of them were in 12 Greek families, including a family of 4 year olds and 11 other families with kids ranging from kindergarteners through 6th graders.

Average attendance each day was 92, which is excellent, especially considering that the following week includes the 4th of July!

84 adults and youth were involved doing anything from being Grecian family leaders (Oikos)/shopkeepers/drama people/kitchen helpers/video techs/game leaders/registrars/song and dance leaders/decorators/VBS Directors and others who provided a helping hand wherever needed. And at least 32wonderful youth assisted in just about everything – several of them as teachers and leaders! These numbers don’t count the awesome number of people who provided program supplies and LOTS of yummy (and healthy!) food to feed everybody all week. Thank you SO much, everyone!! You are blessings to FUMER’s children’s ministry!

About the offering. Again this year, our missionary gifts and financial offerings are being used to provide Baby Boxes (and shipping) to Haiti, helping support the Baby Box program of Soaring Unlimited Haiti! Briefly, the Baby Box program gives infants a much better chance to survive infancy in Haiti by providing a box for each participating family. The box becomes a baby bed so that infants don’t have to sleep on rags on the dirt floor. The box is full of clothing and other supplies that babies need, all provided by VBS kids & their families, as well as our wonderful staff! In addition each participating Haitian mother attends excellent training classes, helping to teach her how to safely raise her children. Last but not least, the box is covered by a mosquito net to provide safety from mosquitoes. In case you are wondering, the Baby Box program saves lives everywhere it is used around the world! Our thanks to Dorothy Fredrickson, the retired director of Soaring Unlimited Haiti, who heads up this project in Michigan. She drove out to Eaton Rapids on Tuesday and spoke to all of us during the Opening Celebration time of VBS! Several boxes of gifts were brought and $318.62 was given to ship the boxes to Haiti.

A special word of thanks goes to our VBS Director team - Sue Shoultz and Joyce Showerman, who have been working since January to plan everything. And we want to thank YOU, our FUMER Family, for your generous monetary donations that make VBS happen. VBS is very expensive, but we know that it is worth every penny spent in bringing children to Jesus Christ and the church. Your generous gifts helped make this year’s VBS possible, with some left over for next year. Praise God! Joyce Showerman​